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Schematic plan · Thirty Year's War

Battle of the Alte Veste

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A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rugged, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserve01 km2 kmN

Sweden (Sw Army, 46,000 men under Gustavus Adolphus) attacked Holy Roman Empire (Imp Army, 60,000 men under Wallenstein) in Franconia. The CAA Database of Battles records 11 hours of fighting on a front of 2.3 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Holy Roman Empire held. Losses: Sweden 4,000 (9%), Holy Roman Empire 2,000 (3%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

Sweden

Gustavus Adolphus

UnitArmMen
Sweden left wingInfantry7,200
Sweden centreInfantry9,600
Sweden right wingInfantry7,200
Sweden reserveInfantry6,000
Sweden cavalry of the leftCavalry8,000
Sweden cavalry of the rightCavalry8,000
Gustavus AdolphusCommander—
In this plan46,000

Holy Roman Empire

Wallenstein

UnitArmMen
Holy Roman Empire left wingInfantry11,280
Holy Roman Empire centreInfantry15,040
Holy Roman Empire right wingInfantry11,280
Holy Roman Empire reserveInfantry9,400
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the leftCavalry6,500
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the rightCavalry6,500
WallensteinCommander—
In this plan60,000

What the sources report

SwedenHoly Roman Empire
Strength, this plan46,00060,000
Losses, this plan4,0002,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 8, “Alte Veste”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rugged, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
2.3 km (attacker), 2.7 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Swedenattacker46,0004,00016,000—Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew
Holy Roman Empiredefender60,0002,00013,000—Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Stalemate

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.